SHIPPING: REGALSHIPPING (ATEM X MAI)
TITLE: NEXT TIME
THEME/MUSIC: EGO/GOODNIGHT GRAVITY - FALLING UP
TAGLINE: SHE ALWAYS TOLD HIM THAT SHE WOULD BE WAITING.
WORDS: 329
She always told him that she would be waiting. Waiting for next time. Because each time she would lose, no matter how valiantly she battled against him, no matter how much harder she tried. But she accepted defeat in the strangest way, or so he thought. She would push her long hair back and look at him, smiling, something resembling triumph glimmering in her eyes. The eyes that colored his own reflection.
Next time!
And he knew she would try again and again, but it puzzled him like the golden object that hung from his neck, whispering of ancient secrets and a forgotten past. What made her keep coming back?
It couldn't be the furtive looks she shot at him when she thought he was staring straight ahead, or the smile that she seemed to save only for him. She was beauty and fire and he was regal and water. And how could triumph result from failure?
He wondered this as the smoke cleared to reveal her standing in the same stance she always had whenever she lost. She pushed her long hair back and looked at him, eyes glimmering, and shouted it again. And he hid his confusion and smiled back.
He wondered if her ego was as intact as the grin on her face. He wondered, wishing wistfully, if the only reason she came back was maybe just to see him again. The glimmer in her eyes seemed to tell him so: that her ego was not something so easily crushed, that each loss was a triumph in its own way.
Was every smile a message, folded into a small square, and slipped to him in indecipherable writing? Was every word an illusion or truth? Did she keep coming back because she was sure she could win?
And what would she win?
He wondered this, watching her wave and turn her back to him yet again, deciding that he would be waiting for that next time's answer.
yeah, I didn't like this one... I found it difficult to write these two together. advice?